Haven of Hope Eating Disorder Care Center, the only eating disorder treatment facility west of Nashville, will soon be offering transitional housing for patients in their care.
This service and others are a part of an expansion that is set to take place this fall. The Cordova center will also offer partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient services.
“These new levels of care will complement our existing residential treatment program for adult women and female-identifying individuals, allowing us to talk with clients through every phase of healing,” Haven of Hope said. “We’re proud to bring the full continuum of care back to life.”
Shawna Lei Richey, director of community outreach, said their approach to treating eating disorders while also addressing co-occurring trauma has allowed them to treat patients from around the world.
Richey said they were able to get their residential programming off the ground in January.
Residential services tend to be the most intensive outside of a hospital setting, Richey said. These patients stay at Haven of Hope for 60 to 90 days, depending on the level of care they need.
She noted a patient’s journey to recovery doesn’t end once they finish treatment. Partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient services are day programs for clients who need “a lower level of care or are ready for the next steps after completing residential treatment.”
Richey said that it can be hard for patients to find housing after receiving care. By offering transitional services, she said they are able to provide continuing care.
“They’re not having to come [stay] with us for residential [treatment] and go on a plane and go somewhere else for those two lower levels of care,” Richey said.
Through partial hospitalization, Haven of Hope will provide group therapy, nutrition therapy, and medical oversight. Intensive outpatient services, which Richey said is based on need, will offer treatment for three-and-a-half hours a day for three to five days a week.
Richey added that accessibility can be a barrier to receiving care. Haven of Hope hopes to be a cohesive resource, “especially” to Memphis residents, as they are the only facility to offer outpatient levels of care in town.
“Our local clients should be able to commute back and forth for programming,” Richey said. “It really is opening up accessibility for our clients who have traveled from different parts of the country, but we’re also going to be able to service and direct admit any level of care and really open up the options available for the Mid-South.”
Richey also said she hopes this expansion will open up conversations about eating disorders. She said the rise of weight loss drugs has intensified diet culture mentality — which can lead to disordered eating.
“We’re treating clients who have complex medical issues as a result of coming off of those GLP-1s — more medically complex situations than I’ve ever seen in seven years of doing this.”
She said it’s a “mixed bag” and can’t blame everything on these drugs; however, she said it is a frequent problem. These not only cause medical complications but also psychological ones, such as body dysmorphia.
The news of the expansion serves as an opportunity to create more open dialogue about eating disorders and treatment options.
“In a lot of cases, that diet culture mentality is developing true disordered eating and eating disorder diagnoses,” Richey said. “There are resources, there is hope, and there is help right here in the Memphis area.”
